Choker
by AJlovesKakashi
Summary: Mission: Escort to Water Country. How did two Anbu fail such a simple mission? Tsunade might just kill Kiba after this one. Just bear to the end and review...please.


This is a little story that has been floating around in my brain for the last week…but now that I've been rendered immobile by my aching goddamn back (it hurts, it hurts! T_T ), I'm now able to write it out.

I've got a few little plot bunnies chasing me right now…and they're trying to kill me so that they can be read.

Small note: I usually write in third person, but because this is in mission report format I decided to write it in first person. Don't kill me if I get it wrong! I'm slightly O.C.D. but I certainly have a lack of experience in the first person field.

Disclaimer: Last time I checked, my drawing skills aren't good enough to draw Naruto. I also don't believe I'm computer-literate enough to actually create an anime for Naruto. So, unless you're completely stupid, I don't think anyone actually believes that I own Naruto (I think I'd do a great job if I did though…).

-o0-

Choker

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Mission: Escort

Rank: B

Team: Haruno Sakura (Anbu) and Inuzuka Kiba (Anbu)

Status: Failed

Author: Haruno Sakura

Report

The mission seemed easy enough, Shishou.

I was to work with Inuzuka Kiba, a partnership that usually succeeded, to escort a noble back to his family in Water Country, which, of course I didn't think was even worth the rank it was given.

The key was that Kiba (I've earned the right to call him by his first name given what happened over this mission) and I would have to pose as a married couple to attend a party with our client in every city we stopped in.

Being a kunoichi without clan status, I only had one formal outfit and one set of jewelry to wear (Pig wanted to take me shopping, but it seemed too much trouble)…little did I know that my choice of attire would lead to the failure of our mission.

After packing our bags, Kiba and I met our client at the gate and departed from Konohagakure after formulating a simple arrangement to protect the noble: Kiba in front of the wagon train and I in the back.

The first night was fine, because we stopped to make camp on the trail, but the second night was completely different after the first party. In retrospect, I should have known Kiba was acting strange when he asked me to slow dance. It wasn't disgusting or creepy…but he gave me several compliments pertaining to my hair (which I left out of its braid for once) and my dress (which was too low-cut for my tastes, but Pig threatened to kill me if I didn't buy it).

That, in and of itself, wasn't enough to worry me; it was part of the mission to pretend that we were married. I should have noticed how strange it was for Kiba to stare at my neck…hungrily. His eyes held a certain ravenous gleam that should have earned him a swift kick to the head for perverseness.

One little exchange in particular should have alarmed me. The conversation went as follows:

_"Kiba, the song ended," I said as I took in his contented expression._

_"Another one will start."_

_"The client wants to leave," I reasoned, attempting to pull away from him._

_"He can wait."_

The first rule of missions: keep the clients happy. If they want to leave, we leave.

It wasn't like Kiba to commit insubordination, and I'm ashamed it didn't tip me off. You trained me so much better than that, Shishou…

After we left, Kiba seemed normal at face value…but I began to notice his lingering stare and his small excuses for entering my personal space.

_"I think I put my kunai in your weapon pouch,"_ he said at one point as he reached his hand into the bag strapped to my thigh, leading to his acquisition of a black eye.

Of course, the most prevalent strange thing he did was to stare at my neck almost, dare I write it, longingly…and I found him once going through my jewelry bag.

At the second party, nearly two days after the first, he asked me to dance once again. I had to say yes (we were posing as a married couple and it would seem strange if a young pair of "newlyweds" didn't dance), and we took our place on the floor.

His arms wrapped around me, very much unlike what he'd done before at the first dance. The first dance with Kiba was formal and uptight, but the second dance was too intimate. To my own credit, I attempted to pull away without the use of chakra (that would have been a "goodbye!" to stealth), but Kiba's grip was vice. Had I known that we would fail the mission anyway, I would have thrown caution to the wind and pummeled him.

Still, he stared and my neck.

By this point I was feeling very uncomfortable…especially when he put Akamaru at the front of the train during travel and joined me in the back, where we were isolated from the client in the front cart. He even slung an arm over my shoulders!

I started giving credit to my suspicions when my hair ties and ribbons disappeared on the fourth night. I could no longer tie my hair up, which (as you know, Shishou) is too long to **not** be a hindrance.

Every time Kiba was close to me, I kept one eye on him just in case he tried something stupid. He seemed too carefree and innocent to me, and I spent every moment trying to figure him out.

Alarm started to set in on the fifth night, when Kiba was taking his shift. I fell asleep uneasily, but I kept in mind the needs of the mission (my shift was next and that surely required me to regain some energy). I didn't pay too much thought to my uneasiness when Kiba woke me up for my shift and instead of sleeping, stayed staring at me. I was too groggy to care. I just took my place in the chair the client had kindly brought out for us.

By chance, I glanced over to him and was conscious enough to notice the smitten stare as he gazed at my neck. On instinct, I brought my hand up to the base of my neck and was alarmed to find that my choker necklace was there.

You see, Shishou, the only jewelry I had was a choker to go with my dress…and the choker on my neck happened to be the necklace I was wearing at the first party when Kiba's staring began. The same, goddamned choker Ino Pig had forced me to bring.

I desperately scrambled to unhook the clasp and be rid of the necklace, but froze when I heard Kiba's low growl. My eyes shifted over to his reclining figure and the expression on his face alone was enough to drop my arms to my lap.

I watched fearfully, frozen in place, as he rose from the sleeping bag to stand before me. He leaned forward and ran a thumb along the piece of jewelry before casually resting his hand along the base of my throat as if holding a glass of water loosely. His face closed in on mine and I desperately longed to escape from the expression written clearly across his face.

"_Sakura…"_ he moaned.

I threw my weight behind me and knocked the chair backwards, seeking to somehow get away from Kiba's intensity, and rolled backwards to run off in the opposite direction. Unfortunately, I hadn't counted on Akamaru's participation in Kiba's scheme.

Akamaru cut me off from my planned route of escape while Kiba circulated around the felled chair to be near me again. He wrapped an arm around my waist and forced me to him.

"_I love that necklace, Sakura. How'd you manage to get my clan's famous collar?"_ he smirked.

Then it all fell into place. He and Ino had planned it! Kiba got Ino to give me the collar (necklace)!

You may remember, Shishou, the time where you had me go through clan histories. You see, I had remembered this particular necklace…and I knew then that I was in deep shit.

The necklace (collar) was one of those horrible devices that clans constructed to ensure that the heir to its leadership married and kept that way. It didn't affect me…but it affected _him_!

Of course, I then figured out that my previous assertion was wrong. Instead, it was Kiba's mom, Tsume, and Ino's father. That Pig sold me out!

I'm not sure if that makes sense. But this is what Ino confirmed for me later:

1. Tsume was tired of Kiba sleeping around (I can't blame her for that one).

2. Somehow the topic was brought up at a Jonin party where Inoichi casually mentioned that his daughter's best friend was the Hokage's apprentice and single (damned Pig for telling her father my problems).

3. Tsume was struck with the idea of matchmaking…but didn't want to bring it up with you, Shishou. So, she casually requested that Kiba and I participate in a mission that required undercover work. Because, you know, we were a great team…Kiba needed to learn to be more stealthy…or, my personal favorite, because I was trained so well by you that I was responsible enough to handle her crazy son.

4. After you said yes (unintentionally sealing my poor, miserable fate), they managed to get Ino to give me the clan's necklace for more shopping money.

And back to the report:

At this point, with Kiba's grip on my waist, it was fight-or-flight. Flight had already failed, so I did the most sensible thing…I punched him. Or at least, I tried to.

He simply caught my hand and pulled me into what resembled a hug but felt like a death grip. I remembered another fun fact about the stupid collar: it forced the wearer into not being able to actually attack the prospective Inuzuka spouse. At this point, I was thinking along the lines of "Shit! Shit! What kind of psycho clan does this to people?"

Then the answer hit me…ALL OF THEM.

I'll skip the rest of details for that little encounter, because from there on, I'm bound to get a little embarrassed...

-o0-

"Sakura, explain this now!" Tsunade growled out as she pointed to the line.

"Umm…well, Shishou, he kissed me…" Sakura murmured softly as she wrung her wrists in shame, "and stuff…"

Tsunade shot her a horrified expression before delving back into the report.

-o0-

As we lay there, with a blanket over us and a combination of embarrassment and shame on my face, Kiba wrapped his arms around me tightly and smirked to himself silently. I honestly wanted nothing more than to kill the Pig for putting me in this situation. Although Kiba was the perpetrator, I couldn't blame him. It was the necklace and it's lasting effects that so affected him, not his own mind. The device was used to attract him to me, so it wasn't his fault. Even with the necklace off, Kiba was bound to feel the same way for the rest of his life, so I counted him a victim along with myself.

Even though the client was returned safely to his country, there were so many code violations that I counted the mission as a failure. This report serves to explain why I returned to Konoha married to Kiba Inuzuka.

-o0-

Tsunade gawked at the pair before her before picking up Kiba's report and reading the contents…

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Mission: Marriage to Haruno Sakura

Rank: Unranked

Team: Inuzuka Sakura (Anbu) and Inuzuka Kiba (Anbu)

Status: Successful

Author: Inuzuka Kiba

Report

The necklace was a fake, my mom was not involved, and Ino was merely a conspirator.

It was all me.

I blocked her punch because she was out of chakra (which was hard to drain while she was sleeping).

Why did I do it?

Simple: she's hot.

-o0-

Tsunade looked up sharply, preparing to kill the man who had dared to touch her beloved apprentice. "Inuzuka Kiba!" she screamed.

Kiba didn't look back as he grabbed his wife and took off running, the couple laughing hysterically as he shot down the streets of Konoha with the furious Hokage on his tail.

Sakura cradled his face as they entered their new home and kissed her husband happily. "I told you it would be funny."

"You were right," he agreed as he carried her up the stairs to their room.

-o0-

Only later would Tsunade find out that Kiba and Sakura had been dating secretly for three years and had used the mission to finally tie the knot.

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Whew! My back still hurts, but I've finally killed that bunny!

That wasn't how it was originally supposed to go…and I have the feeling that not many people will read this to the very end.

So, if you wanna prove me wrong, please review so that I can feel the mental slap of wrong strike me across the face!

Don't literally hit me though, my back hurts enough as is. XDD

AJlovesKakashi

P.S. Thank you in advance to anyone who does review, one of which I'm positive will be the lovely Bloody Diamond…THANK YOU!


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